The present invention relates to a sputtering chamber having at least one sputtering source with a new sputter surface at least approximately symmetrical with respect to a central axis and a substrate carrier which is rotatable in a driven manner about a substrate carrier axis. The central axis and the substrate carrier axis are oblique with respect to one another.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a vacuum treatment system having the above-mentioned sputtering chamber, a vacuum transport chamber for disk-shaped workpieces, and finally a vacuum treatment system having a vacuum transport chamber.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,818,561 and 4,664,935 describe conventional sputtering chambers. The central axis of the sputtering source is arranged at an oblique angle with respect to an axis of rotation of a substrate carrier. The substrate carrier is rotated in a driven manner about the substrate carrier axis. With this sputtering chamber, coating uniformities of better than ±4% are achieved on wafers, whose diameters may be up to 200 mm.
During the manufacturing of storage disks, particularly of optical storage disks, such as mini floppy disks or CDs; further, during the manufacturing of masters, but also for the manufacturing of piezoelectric wafers, of wafers for the production of semiconductors, in this case, particularly also for wafers for the implementation of SAW's (Surface Acoustic Waves), it is extremely important to reach a uniform layer thickness distribution which is at least equally good as, if not better than, that which can be achieved with the known sputtering chambers. In addition, the coating rates should be as high as possible in order to achieve coating times which are as short as possible and thus production rates which are as high as possible.